Golf, like life, is a collection of transactions and relationships that change as you travel around the course or community. It is easy to take shortcuts along the way, like tossing a ball from behind a rock or not counting a wiff. It’s easy to tell little “white” lies to smooth over embarrassing situations. Integrity, however, is often at odds with the EASY button.
Dictionary.com provides several definitions of Integrity, including:
- Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty,
- The state of being whole, entire, or undiminished:
- A sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition:
Ethical principles. Playing by The Rules and Decisions of Golf can present quite a formidable challenge. It is understandable for beginners to take preferred lies in the rough or sand bunkers. Professional golfers, living under the scrutiny of thousands of armchair instant-replay umpires, work hard to ensure that each time they play their ball that it’s done in strict accordance to the rules. No shortcuts here.
Being whole. Integrity also refers to all parts working together for the whole. Are there areas of your game that need attention? You fix one area only to have two more raise up.
Perfect condition. The golf swing has many moving parts where imperfections may creep in and cause doubt which creates additional opportunities for problems.
Great results like improving your life or golf swing requires work. In the end, taking shortcuts takes longer as immediate achievements often have to be reworked. Make sure your golf swing, and your life, is built on solid, repeatable fundamentals. For example, at Play-a-Round Golf, we seek to add value to each customer’s experience with patience, kindness, honesty, humility, and perseverance working with integrity. These require going the extra mile, but we’ve found that in the end they’re well worth the effort.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
I Corinthians 13:4-7.
